Goodbye Friends :)
I have decided to leave AO and just wanted to say bye to all the people I didn’t have a chance to in person and thanks to all the people out there who make this game so fun to play. I am not leaving because anything is “wrong” with the game, in fact I love it, but because of what this game has become for me. Funcom has created this wonderful “fake world” where you can have exciting adventures, own items, etc. with no risk to yourself personally. The problem is, at least in my case, they did too good of a job. I have played this game since about 2 weeks after it came out and at first it was just a casual thing that I played for fun, but soon I found myself playing more and more to the point where it has affected my personal life for a long time now. I found myself neglecting my responsibilities, family, and college. So about a couple months ago I decided that I would stop playing. Well about 2 weeks after I decided that I logged on to just say “hi” to people but soon I was playing just as much as before. It then became apparent to me that this was an addiction and the reason why became very clear. Just like any alcohol or drug addict I was using this game as an escape from all the problems of real life. In this game there are no car payments, no hassles from work, no credit card bills piling up, no family problems, etc. It can even numb the pain of things from your past, letting you get absorbed in where you don’t have to think about those things. You can run around relatively free to do your hearts content, and in there lies the problem. The real world is not like that. In the real world when you fall it hurts and when you mess up there are consequences. This game doesn’t make all the problems of life any easier, it just puts them off so they can pile up. Your mind sees all those problems and would rather avoid them than deal with them so the cycle continues. I had thought about that for a long time and why I would do that to myself, yet I continued to play knowing full well it was unhealthy. I guess somewhere along the line I reached that point in life where you take stock of all the good and bad parts of yourself, on that mental list this was one of the bad ones. I knew as long I continued this cycle of “escaping” into things instead of dealing with problems head on, there was no way for me to accomplish anything meaningful in life in the long run. So it took me a couple more weeks of me thinking “I'm quitting” and then making some excuse up in my head or thinking “I can just play a little bit” (classic for any addiction), but I was finally able to drag the will power out of somewhere and took steps in game and in real life to make sure there would be no temptation for me to ever return. This whole thing has forced me to see my own limitations so I have made the decision to never play any online games ever again. It is time for me to live my life and make my own adventures and I have started doing some things that I have always wanted to do. I am starting to get in better shape, trying to teach myself to play guitar, and am even thinking of getting into boxing as a hobby.
Well that’s enough of my ramblings. Draw your own conclusions from what I wrote but I am hoping some people can learn from my experiences with this. It wasn’t meant to be preachy but I know there are a lot of people out there who have the same problems as I do, so if it gets people thinking I'm happy. I also just wanted to say that most of the people I have met in this game are good people and I wish you all blessing for your families and the best of luck in life. Goodbye my friends I will miss you all
